Diver Danner wrote:I'm thinking about ditching all of my cheap diver decoys and go to a smaller more realistic spread. Any suggestions?

Go cork, Herters fall apart and simply dont hold up. Greenbhead gear.com came out with cheap but great looking plastic deeks with removable keels I got some their nice, G&H are awesome PLASTIC deeks but man plastic...but with the plastics you shoot them their gone. Save up and go cork ..cant go wrong ! Later

I just bought a layout boat for hunting divers this fall. Does anyone have suggestions on what size decoys to use. I bought some of the lifesize though some people seem to be getting the magnum and super magnum. I thought the larger ones would spook the duck at close range. Please send any ideas. Thanks

The bottom line is that a piece of wood panted with a black-white-black paint scheme will pull divers. I personally don't worry too much about what my decoys look like as I have been pulling ducks with them for years. Looks are mostly for the hunters' liking. JMHO

I would strongly suggest using Herter's Ultimate or Burlap decoys. They are alot cheaper than cork and lighter. The paint holds up pretty good. I bought 2 dozen plain and painted them myself for about $115 a dozen for the ultimate magnums. They are solid styrofoam with a hard plastic shell. As with any diver hunter, the decoys will get shot, and they hold up extremely well. The advantage of painting yourself is you can make more drakes than hens which works out alot better. Look into Cabela's for the prices.

Montana allows the harvest of one canvasback from opening weekend (last weekend in sept. or first weekend in oct.) until the very beginning of december. this past season cans closed dec. 2, and opening day was oct 4. these dates were good for the part of the state the falls into the Pacific flyway. The portion of the state in the central flyway opened oct 4 and closed nov. 11 allowing the harvest of one canvasback also. The same dates and limits held for pintails.

Although G&H makes a puddle duck decoy, their divers don't have the right proportions. (Width/height vs. length) In heavy wind they blow over. So do Carrylites which are rounded on the bottom. Foam or cork decoys have the edge when it comes to divers. You can shoot the birds when they are flying through the decoys without sinking them.

We have moved to super Mag foam decoys and foam filled plastic decoys. The greenhead Gear decoys are the best looking production decoy on the market, but they are too small for big water hunting. Fred Zink did a great job on the paint this time. Foreget those who say use all drakes. Market hunters used 50/50 ratio.

We hunt the Great Lakes from boat blinds and layout boats and have learned what has been best for us over the years.

WA allows killin Cans, as for the dekes I have to agree with the Herters. I have about 3 doz divers and love the burlaps but cant seem to find them anymore. The other armored herters are also nice but stay away from the photo enhanced ones, they are not very durable

There is no problem that cannot be solved with the proper application of HIGH EXPLOSIVES!

For an inexpensive diver decoy pant a black wing patch on a white bleach jug. I have had the best luck with using the 2.5 qt jug. I don't know if the cap comes in any other color than red. My wife only buys the red cap blech jug, pant it white. After jugging for Divers in the Winter, I take the jugs to the Catfish in the Spring.

I use herters, McCords, and Toledo's. The Toledo's are bulletproof litterally speaking. Use as many blocks as you can. Sometimes you can get away with 60 or so and still bring in divers. We usually go with around 90. What kind of layout did ya buy?